Broadview Networks, Inc., headquartered in Rye Brook, New York, is a network-based business communications provider serving customers throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. (As of September 17, 2009, Broadview will be offering its OfficeSuite solution (see below) nationwide.)

Broadview provides the total solution for business communications including local and long distance voice communications; hosted and premises-based VoIP systems; data services encompassing VPN and MPLS-enabled applications; traditional telephone hardware; high-speed Internet services; a full suite of managed services and a range of professional services.

Founded in 1996, Broadview has over 1,200 employees, 70,000 business customers with over 30,000 hosted VoIP stations deployed and online every day, and $500 million in annual revenue.

Broadview offers a number of business products and services, including:

Data and High speed Internet Access, such as their ZOOM service that provides dedicated connectivity at speeds ranging from 5 to 30 Mbps

voice solutions, such as their Broadspeed Voice service, which is scalable and supports multiple trunk and call types, providing measured and allowance-based calling plans

Hardware and Phone Systems, with solutions that can support from 8 to 120 end stations

Professional Services and Network Integration, that provide design and configuration solutions for LAN, WAN and wireless environments Government Services that serves educational, healthcare and other agencies

Broadspeed SIP Trunking services offer IP bandwidth selections from 1.5 to 6.0 Mbps, with up to 70 concurrent conversations. The firm provides an end-to-end managed service, from the router to Broadviews MPLS IP backbone, without relying on the public Internet for voice or data transport. The end-to-end IP connectivity optimizes the voice quality by minimizing latency associated with IP-to-TDM format conversions. Broadview has certified a number of vendors systems for use with this service, including those from Aastra, Avaya, Cisco, Digium, Mitel, Nortel, and ShoreTel.

Broadspeed Hosted PBX is a solution that combines the enhanced features of an IP PBX with the flexibility of open, standards-based networking. The platform delivers redundancy and scalability that is difficult to achieve with traditional PBX systems. It offers the CommPilot web interface, which lets users self-configure and manage their personal services in real time, thus minimizing the support required for moves, adds, and changes.

OfficeSuite is a hosted IP phone solution that offers small and medium-size businesses the functionality of an enterprise-grade PBX or key system without any capital investment or increase in support staff.

OfficeSuite is completely hosted, and includes a phone system, Internet access, automatic system upgrades and unlimited local and regional calling plans as well as long distance minutes, reducing the total cost of ownership. Customers existing phone numbers can be ported to OfficeSuite and new numbers can be added as well.

The system offers remote and offsite options for home-based employees and mobile professionals, and is very scalable, allowing business to add stations and expand capabilities in response to business requirements, without having to add cards, expensive shelves or system upgrades. Broadview recently expanded their OfficeSuite offering to include the capability to serve businesses nationwide.

Broadview also offers the OfficeSuite USB Phone, which looks similar to a USB storage device, but actually houses all the software required to make and receive calls, a sound card to process the voices on either end of the call and any user profiles and preferences. The phone offers mobile professionals the convenience of a PC-based softphone integrated with the functionality of an enterprise-grade phone system like a PBX or key system. With this level of integration, the USB phone can be used from almost any internet-connected PC, even a borrowed laptop or from an Internet café. Unlike a traditional softphone, the USB phone leaves no evidence of use or secure data behind once it is unplugged and doesnt install any software. It also ships with a mobile headset that plugs directly into the USB phone, providing mobile professionals with a highly portable and reliable phone service regardless of where they travel.

Further information on the Broadview Networks solutions can be found at www.broadviewnet.com. Our next tutorial will continue our review of various service providers hosted voice solutions.

Author's Biography Mark A. Miller, P.E. is President of DigiNet Corporation®, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm. He is the author of many books on networking technologies, including Voice over IP Technologies, and Internet Technologies Handbook, both published by John Wiley & Sons.

Mark A. Miller, P.E. is President of DigiNetB. Corporation, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm. He is the author of many books on networking technologies, including Voice over IP Technologies, and Internet Technologies Handbook, both published by John Wiley & Sons.

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